Covering Disruptive Technology Powering Business in The Digital Age

Big data has captured the headlines for a number of months now. Some estimates project that data will grow to the exabyte (1,000 gigabytes) level in the next few years and shortly after hit a zettabyte (1,000,000,000,000 gigabytes) level.

A recent article in http://www.c4isrnet.com notes that is a huge amount of data. Global data storage hardware sales figures support those estimates: They jumped an astonishing 41.4% in the first quarter of this year.

The consulting firm Capgemini published an interesting article, “Big & Fast Data: The Rise of Insight-Driven Business,” which states that 58% of the 1,000 C-level executives and senior decision-makers surveyed expect to face increased competition from start-ups enabled by data.

These stats justify that an organisation’s data is an asset and that asset class is rapidly growing in value. That is why about 61% of those surveyed believed that big data has become a driver of revenues.

While many articles have been written about the dramatic growth in the volume of data that is being generated, much less attention has been given to the increased threat the collection of all this data poses.

Stolen date (including trade secrets) is often used for competitive advantage and often provides unique insight into the operation of the organisation and its products and services. In some cases, particularly with small- and medium-size organisations, the costs associated with data theft can cause the organisation to go out of business. The negative effects do not stop there.

Theft of this valuable business asset can have serious repercussion that extends well beyond the organisation from which it was stolen.  If this is a concerted effort, it can negatively affect a nation’s economy and become a national security threat.

All of this is what drove the White House to publish Administration Strategy on Mitigating the Theft of U.S. Trade Secrets in 2013. While relatively new, many are beginning to question if the strategy is enough or even working given all the publicity about recent data thefts.

The sheer volume of data assets theft now poses a serious transnational security risk that must be addressed. It’s time for a change in the way we have tried to address this issue.

Read the full article at: http://www.c4isrnet.com/story/military-tech/cyber/2015/10/29/big-data-strategic-cyber-target/74816830/

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